If a human can hang around in this life long enough to reach maturity, he/she is probably lucky, or blessed, or both; and by the time that person reaches maturity he/she has probably pondered the question of where all this stuff in the world came from.
Perhaps it all evolved from the Big Bang; or maybe God created it all.
Generally I find that people who like to think a lot are likely to lean toward the Big Bang and/or Evolution as a path toward rationalizing the physical universe; and it seems to me that people who stay busy with the business of living, without being too analytical about it, will typically lean toward Religion or Faith as a way of dealing with life’s persistent questions.
What’s important is that we can all find a way to tolerate each other in the midst of these two world-view polarities. If we don’t find a way to live in peace and productivity then we might really screw this thing up and render the world uninhabitable.
No matter which of these two camps you may find yourself drawn to, you must admit that if this universe were not founded upon some organizing principle, we would have nothing except perhaps a bunch of cosmic dust floating around the universe.
How, for instance, how can you account for the fact that every atom has a nucleus of protons and neutrons, with electrons orbiting around it?
How did the first atom get organized?
That’s the microcosmic question. Now here’s the same conundrum on a macro level: How can you account for the fact that the Sun has Planets orbiting around it?
Did it all just happen, or did something/someone organize it?
Perhaps it all evolved from the Big Bang; or maybe God created it all.
Now we in this postmodern period of human of human history have generally divided ourselves into two categories concerning these important questions.
At the risk of oversimplifying the issue, let me just propose that we could say some of us are in the Rational camp and others of us are in the Religious camp.
I myself try to be a sojourner in both of these universes, but that’s neither here nor there.
I use the word Rational to classify the folks who like to use data and their brains to figure out all this stuff, because Rational suggests that by their thinking they can actually figure most of it out enough to proceed with the business of living life intelligently.
I use the word Religious to classify the folks who prefer to depend on faith or theological revelation to account for this world, and then use their faith to inform and fortify their life decisions.
Now here’s the rub.
Whichever of these two camps you find yourself drawn to, you must admit that there are still some questions that your chosen system of thought/belief will not fully answer.
There are some things we just don’t know!
You Rationalist, can you prove how quantum mechanics or whatever made arrangements for a nuclear proton to serve as the center-point for that first atom?
You Religious person, can you prove that there’s a Just God who allows such evil as we see in this world to exist?
But these challenges are rhetorical.
We cannot prove the veracity of an answer to either of the above challenges. If a Rationalist could prove to me how the first atom was organized, I would probably not understand the proof. If a Religionist could explain how or why God allows evil, I would likely disagree with him/her on some point, based upon my cultural religious heritage.
There is an end-point (or a beginning point) to both world-view systems where another unknown prevents absolute conclusion of the matter.
There are some things we just don’t know.
At the end of any unanswerable question, however, we surely do discover that an assumption, or thesis, is required if we are going move beyond indecision.
Or we could say it like this: at the end of every Rational thought progression is necessarily found (reap ‘em and weep) a Leap.
A leap of faith, if you’ll forgive my trench, because you can’t know everything.
Maybe you’ve figured out that this world is going to hell in a carbon-basket.
What else is new?
We faith-based types understand that not everything can be figured out or calculated. So most of us concede to this perplexity by subscribing to divine revelation for our cosmological answers.
And there are enough of us religious types out here to assure you that all humanity will not be driven into agreement about what is to be done to save us. After all, we still yet fail to agree on whose god is the correct one and what would that supreme being requires of us.
We’re into day-to-day living; many of us are just getting by.
So do your data thing. Collect your Big Data. Have a good time with it. Drill your polar ice cores and try to arrive at conclusions that will convince us billions of blockheads out here in Peoria or flyover country or working class lala land.
Consider this. Going back to middle school science. . .
At the end of every Geological Age on Earth we find a change of climate. Looking forward, exactly how it will work out in the next shift we do not know because there are too many variables to predict or calculate.
Yes there are too many variables, too many individual decisions to be made, too many quantum mechanics, too many people—to come into agreement about how to solve the problem. And any Final Solution would not be appropriate.
Even if there is one school of scientists who figure out all these warming consequences, can the vast mass of humanity be manipulated into getting with the program enough to make a difference?
No. We billions would have to be cajoled, intimidated, manipulated, deprived of our life, liberty and pursuits of happiness to go along with the program. You can’t teach an old dog’s-life new carbon tricks; we’ve been throwing soot into the air ever since we figured out how to make fire.
Try to convince us, if you must, of what’s to be done to arrest global warming. My personal opinion is you are probably correct. Our depraved pollutive ways have probably already sunk the ship.
So Good luck with that.
Educate the masses if you can, but don’t get too excited about it. Most of us are dim bulbs compared to the Enlightenment that would be required to activate such a tectonic shift in human behavior.
Changing the consumptive habits of entire human population is about as likely as getting us all rounded up to shag in a Pangaean prom.
So give us a break. Try to convince us if you can, because we are, believe it or not, paying attention.
But don’t be taking away our civil liberties, and don’t be messing’ with our faith-based solutions to life’s persistent questions.
Forget not the words of our great prairie home companion: Do good work, and keep in touch.
And remember also these words that were, back in the day, crooned by the king of Rock’n’roll:
Don’t ya step on my blue suede shoes.
King of Soul
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